OMG !
I became fascinated with WWI Air Combat years ago when I happened to buy a little innovative game called "Ace of Aces". This was a flip-book game that was utterly brilliant in design and at its most complex level, required the opponents to imagine and visualize in three dimensions.
I have been waiting a very long time for a WWI flight sim that I could take seriously. I could never understand why the fantastic flight models of such great franchises as the "Jane's" series (for example) wasn't applied to a WW1 flight sim. I was starting to think that I must be one of only a half dozen people that would rather fly a bi-plane than a F-18. I think I may have found what I have been waiting for in "First Eagles".
I have just spent the last week in a state of near euphoric delirium flying in "First Eagles" and I got to tell you that the first time, during a nasty ‘Dog Fight', I was forced to pull a high G banked turn and heard that stress creaking ‘wrenching' noise fill my headset, well, suffice it to say that my face hurt from grinning so hard!
Imagine my ‘mouth gaping' astonishment when, in an attempt to avoid a mid air collision, I had my upper wing sheared off by the undercarriage of a Fokker. I literally laughed out loud as I spiralled in to an ignominious explosion at 0 AGL.
Granted, "First Eagles" is a little weak when you are on the ground, but the air combat is where it shines!
Now I need to find a group of ‘Junior Birdsmen' that have Team Speak and want to meet regularly for co-op and adversarial WWI combat. Can anyone recommend a dedicated server or are we not that far yet?
Also, I am pleased to see that the modding community is hard at work developing more planes for us. As a modder myself I look forward to learning to design additional missions if that is possible. I have read in the forums that there are already a few problems with players not having compatible mods when joining multiplayer games. So, as with FPS gaming, I would suggest using the stock game with the recent official patch for multiplayer gaming until a set of standard mods approved by the community evolves.
If, like me, you are looking for some co-op/adversarial gaming and you have Team Speak, drop me a line or post a link to a dedicated server. I'ld be more than happy to put a flame on your tail!
Serious, mature gamers only need apply.